Friday, October 26, 2007 - 2:20 PM
Dogwood Room (Greenville Hyatt Regency Hotel)
567

Hydroxide Solution Growth of NaLnTiO4 (Ln=La - Gd, Dy) Crystals

Hargobind S. Khalsa, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Single crystals of NaLnTiO4 (Ln = La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Y, and Dy) have been grown from an NaOH flux in sealed silver tubes. The initial compositions were ascertained by EDS and the structure was subsequently solved by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The series NaLnTiO4 (La, Pr, and Nd) crystallize in the space group P4/nmm with a = 3.80 - 3.75 Å, c = 13.27 - 12.85 Å; consistent with literature data based on powder X-ray diffraction. Interestingly the series NaLnTiO4 (Sm - Gd, Dy) crystallizes in the space group P4212 with a = 5.33 - 5.39 Å, c =12.64 -12.72 Å, indicating a structural change. Earlier structural analyses on polycrystalline samples of NaLnTiO4 (Sm - Lu) suggested the orthorhombic space group Pbcm for the latter compositions. The single crystal structures of NaLnTiO4 (Ln = Sm, Eu, Gd) differ from the previously reported values based on X-ray powder diffraction data. The crystallization in a non-centrosymmetric space group may allow for interesting non-linear optical behavior.